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Charles Stewart Parnell

27/6/1846 - 6/10/1891 | Irish political leader and one of the most important figures in 19th century Ireland.

Charles Stewart Parnell was born in Avondale, County Wicklow, on the 27th June 1846 into an affluent protestant family. He was the seventh child of John Henry Parnell and Delia Tudor Stewart, whose father was an American naval hero, Charles Stewart.

Parnell inherited the Avondale estate when he was 13 years old, following the sudden death of his father. The house was rented out and Parnell and the rest of his family moved to live in Dublin.

Parnell began his education in Yeovil, Somerset. He was tutored at home for a period of time having contracted typhoid fever, and returned to school in England at Kirk Langley, Derbyshire and Great Ealing School. In 1865 he went up to Magdalene College, Cambridge, but did not take his degree having been “sent down” for a breach of academic discipline.

Parnell returned to Ireland and began to farm the family estate at Avondale. Having made the decision to enter politics, Parnell joined the Home Rule Party led by Isaac Butt in 1875. He was elected a member of parliament for County Meath. Parnell soon became a master of parliamentary procedure. When the Home Rule MPs began to lose faith in their ability to influence the British government, Parnell and a number of other members, including Joseph Biggar, began obstructing parliament by moving amendments and making very long speeches. On one occasion, Parnell and six other Irish MPs kept the house sitting continuously for twenty-six hours.

Although his actions brought him into opposition with Isaac Butt who was now chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party, it brought him attention from Ireland and stirred opinion. Parnell said “as an Irishman” and one detesting “English cruelty and tyranny”, he felt “a special satisfaction in preventing and thwarting the intentions of the government”. In August 1877 Parnell was elected President of the Fenian-controlled Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain and had secured the support of the leading Irish-American republican organisation Clan na Gael.